When dawn arrived, Taylor was no where close to ready for the day. She grumbled the entire time she took to change. In fact, she was grumbling to herself even as she took her breakfast, which was supposed to be the best part of her day.

“What is wrong with you?” Jasmine asked, quickly noticing her sulky attitude.

“I’m tired,” Taylor moaned, scooping out another mouthful of porridge to fill her mouth.

Jasmine shook her head at her, narrowing her eyes. “Listen, newbie, I don’t have time for you to moan and groan because you are tired and are too lazy to do work. If you didn’t realise, we are all tired. Look around you, none of us want to even be here. We would do everything to go into our beds and sleep the night away. But, guess what, none of us have the luxury to do so. We need the money, like you. And we are going to work hard for it. So, you better do the same as us, or watch yourself get kicked out of this place in less than a day,” she declared.

Taylor was startled into completely waking up. She pressed her lips together and her eyes clouded with unspoken tears. Bending her head down in shame, she nodded.

While any other day, Princess Taylor would have yelled at anyone who dared to talk to her like that, ensuring that they got punished severely, this Taylor was different. She had only lived in their shoes for one day, and already, Taylor knew that while being royalty was difficult, it was completely different to the harsh life that the poor people went through daily.

Their constrictive clothes, tear-inducing shoes, limited meals, hard beds that ached their backs, it was hardly the tip of the suffering they went through their entire lives.

This Taylor understood that, even if it had only been a day. That’s why she felt ashamed of how she was acting, not just as newbie Gwen, but as Princess Taylor too. She should be able to fit in with her people but instead she was so spoilt, without her title, she could not even do enough to gain their respect.

Sure, Taylor was sent here to spy on Prince Henry and she will do that. But she also had a job to work at, and Taylor promised herself at that moment, that she would give it all her best.

She was going to live the life of her people, and for the next few months, she wanted to make the most out of it.

Hours passed by, yet the Prince did not appear. Taylor had been assigned to sweep the lower floor of the west wing of the castle, paired with a Mazian staff of the castle. It was obvious, how none of the group of girls that came in the day before were paired with each other. Everyone was shooting Taylor troubled looks when they found out about it.

Luckily, sweeping was something that Taylor was familiar with, simply because she used to join the maids in the castle when she was younger. It had been a time in her life where her parents did not give her an ounce of their attention and she was forced to join the maids doing their chores simply to have someone to interact with.

Shaking her head, Taylor swept away the dust from the ground and those thoughts from her mind. She smiled to herself as she moved across the large room Belinda– her partner for the job– and she were sweeping.

“This feels so therapeutic,” Taylor admitted loudly, as she swung from side to side, sweeping away.

“Therapeutic? I find it boring and time-consuming! We should have some kind of machine that simply sucks up the dust instead of forcing us to move it from one place to another,” Belinda exclaimed.

Taylor nodded. “The mortals came up with such a thing a few decades ago. I have heard about it. It has an extremely weird name though. Something to do with vacuums,” she informed.

Belinda frowned. “How do you know so much about the mortals? We are hardly taught about them.”

Taylor bit her tongue, her eyes widening in realisation. “I overhead two traders talking about it. They had supposedly sailed to the mortal lands and back,” she lied quickly, hoping Belinda did not catch.

“Oh yes, I have heard many stories from such traders too. Best is, little Gwen, to not pay heed to their talks. It’s often nonsensical and mostly lies. You’d do well to stay away from them,” Belinda advised.

Taylor nodded. “Of course.”

Belinda sighed. “Still, this does not make this task any less boring. Well, I think we are done with this room. Do you want to take a five minute break?”

Taylor turned to her, nodding her head excitedly. “Yes, let’s do that. My feet are aching for some reason and a five minute break would do us both some good,” she said in agreement.

As they both slid down in the ground, their brooms laying beside them, Belinda suggested, “Do you want to play a game?”

“A game?” Taylor repeated.

“Yes, a fighting game. Like a match. Our brooms will be our weapons and we can, perhaps, spar with each other,” Belinda said excitedly.

Taylor shook her head. “I don’t know. I mean, we just swept this room. If we swing our brooms around, the dust may collect again. That’s additional work we will have to do. Plus, we may not have enough energy to clean up all the rooms after sparring. It can be quite tiring,” Taylor confessed.

Belinda frowned. “You sound very knowledgeable about sparring. Anyways, it’s just for a few minutes. It would be the highlight of my day. The Prince didn’t show up this morning and sweeping all day is such a boring thing to do. Please!”

Taylor relented. “Alright, but only for a few minutes.”

Belinda smiled mischievously. “Of course!” she said loudly, before mumbling to herself, “A few minutes is all I need.”